


Simple Pleasures

by BlackSkyandRoses



Series: Inquisition: Cullen x Inquisitor [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Light Injuries, Massage, bath fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 05:10:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4167153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackSkyandRoses/pseuds/BlackSkyandRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saragra slowly climbed the stairs to the main hall of Skyhold, wincing. Every single muscle in her body felt sprained and sprung. Her body was battered and bruised, and she hadn’t felt this exhausted since she had to trek through the snow after the attack on Haven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simple Pleasures

**Author's Note:**

> Just another fluff piece. Not really NSFW, but there's nudity and kisses.

Saragra slowly climbed the stairs to the main hall of Skyhold, wincing. Every single muscle in her body felt sprained and sprung. Her body was battered and bruised, and she hadn’t felt this exhausted since she had to trek through the snow after the attack on Haven.

Josephine scurried down the stairs to meet her. “Inquisitor! You’ve returned! Are you alright?” She looked up Saragra, her dark eyes full of concern.

“I’m okay, Josie. I’m okay.” Saragra swayed on her feet, and Josephine slipped an arm around her waist to steady her.

“What happened, Saragra?” In her concern, Josephine’s careful and professional demeanor had slipped and she reverted to using Saragra’s name, rather than the title upon which she usually insisted on using.

“There were… a lot of dragons across that bridge, apparently. Bull had a field day.”

“Dragons? _Again_?” Josephine was incredulous.

“Three, to be exact. I’m glad we made the area safer, but Andraste’s holy tits it was a difficult fight.”

Josephine chose to ignore Saragra’s colourful choice of words and helped her slowly mount the stairs to Skyhold. Saragra closed her eyes, and didn’t open them again until she could smell delicate Orlesian perfume and felt another arm slip around her other side.

“Inquisitor.” Leliana had arrived on the stairs. “My scouts saw you coming, I had a bath drawn for you.”

“Oh Maker Leliana, I love you.” Saragra groaned.

The ambassador and the spymaster helped Saragra cross the hall and climb up to her bedroom. When she crested the top step, Saragra saw a massive brass tub sitting in her bedroom, full of steaming water. There was a small table sitting next to it, full of small jars and bottles.

“This was actually meant to be a name day gift for you, but I think you could use it tonight” Josephine said.

“I.. thank you, Josie. Leliana. I really.. really appreciate it.” Saragra straightened as best as she could.

“We will leave you to your bath, Inquisitor.” Josephine smiled at her, and she and Leliana disappeared down the steps.

Saragra slowly peeled off the layers of leather and fabric, wincing as the newly formed scabs pulled away with the fabric.

She dropped the armloads of armour on the ground, kicking off her boots and slinking towards the tub.

Bracing herself, Saragra lowered herself into the tub, hissing as her muscles screamed in protest at the effort. The hot water was soothing, however, and she bit back a moan of appreciation.

The bottles on the table turned out to hold oils and salts, for healing and just for fragrance. Saragra smiled when she saw a dried bundle of elfroot sitting on the table as well. Truly, those two thought of everything.

She reached out and crushed some of the herbs into the water, and added some oils for good measure. Sinking deeper into the tub, she closed her eyes. She would just relax, for a little bit. Try to let the hot water work out some of the pain in her muscles. Just relax...for a little bit…

It was the clink of the bottles that woke her up. Saragra opened one eye groggily, and noticed Cullen crouched beside the tub. He was stripped down to his shirtsleeves, which were rolled up as he swirled one hand through the water.

She smiled, and tried to sit up, but a bolt of pain shot through her back, and she hissed in pain.

Cullen reached out and put one hand on her shoulder gently.

“Don’t move” he said softly. His eyes were full of concern as he looked her over. Her body was painted in bruises, from her collarbone all the way down to her legs. There were several deep gashes across her back and torso, and one healing burn across one thigh.

Saragra saw the look in his eyes and her heart ached.

“Its… it’s not as bad as it looks” she said, vainly trying to reassure him. “I’ll heal up just fine.”

Cullen poured some oil into his hand, and moved around to sit behind Saragra.

“I just.. I worry for you when you leave.” he said, as he started to gently rub her shoulders.

“Cullen, you don’t have to - ohhhh _Maker_.” Saragra protests were cut off as the oil warmed under his palms and started to tingle on her sore muscles. A slightly spicy scent wafted its way up to her - Cinnamon, maybe? Cloves? Some exotic spice she didn’t know?

Cullen chuckled behind her as he continued to work the knots out of her shoulders and neck, which were deeply entrenched and resisting his efforts

“You know, I’ve always wondered something” he mused. “Did you say that before, or is it the influence of being Andraste’s herald?”

Saragra tipped her head forward, closing her eyes.

“Say what before?”

“When you call to the Maker. Is that something you did before the conclave? When you were with your clan?”

Saragra huffed.

“That is absolutely one hundred percent the side effects of hanging around you _shemlens_ all day.” Her tone was light, and Cullen knew she was teasing.

“I suppose if I had to spend so much time around Cassandra, starting with being her prisoner, I’d be calling to the Maker as well. Anyone else who would listen too.”

Saragra snickered. “I’ll be sure to tell her you said that. I’m sure Varric would work her very creative retaliation into one of his books.”

Cullen ran his thumbs up the back of her neck firmly, massaging along Saragra’s hairline. Her hair was pulled back in a bun, as always, but a few stray strands were starting to fall out.

“Now, before we get too distracted thinking of all the lovely things Cassandra is capable of doing when angry, tell me what happened.”

Saragra sighed, thinking back.

“Okay. So, as you know, we fixed that bridge in the Emprise. We knew there was one dragon, we’d seen it in the distance. Bull was eager as hell, of course. When we crossed the bridge, we immediately found the first dragon. It was a tough fight, to be honest. Probably one of the hardest dragons we’ve taken down, to be honest. That fight went okay - no major injuries - but we decided to push on and maybe see if we could find a place to camp. And we found a group of red templars.”

Cullen fought to keep his hands gentle and the pressure even on Saragra’s neck. His voice was calm when he asked “How many were there?”

“Hmmm. I don’t know. I think maybe we took out about twenty all told. Couple of small cells that we missed taking the fort. They weren’t the problem. The second dragon was the problem,”

Cullen’s voice was incredulous “You took out two dragons? _In one day_?”

“And some red templars.” Saragra added.

“The second one was really tough though, to be honest. Since we were tired, we were a little slower, and..” Saragra laughed as gestured at herself

“Well, I’m sure you can imagine.”

Cullen leaned forward and kissed her shoulder, wrapping one arm around her protectively.

“Maker, I don’t want to. Saragra, you could have been… you could’ve..”

With an effort, Saragra swiftly turned around and caught Cullen’s head in her hands.

“Don’t. Don’t go there Cullen. I’m here. I’m fine. I’m in one piece, and I’m all yours.”

She pulled him forward, kissing him deeply. He wrapped his arms around her, her skin warm and soft from the bath. His fingers skated down her back, feeling old scars and new wounds under his palms. She nipped at his lower lip, then started to trail kisses over to his ear.

“It’s okay, Cullen. I love you. I’m here. I love you.” she whispered.

Cullen disengaged himself from her embrace, and moved to the side of the tub.Grabbing the small bottle of oil again,  he slipped one arm under her legs and another behind her back, and picked her up effortlessly, ignoring the water that streamed off of her body.

Saragra shivered as she left the water, and attempted to curl into Cullen’s shirt. She made a noise of annoyance and Cullen laughed.

“Patience, my love. I can only work out so many knots with you sitting in the tub.”

Cullen carried her over to the bed and deposited her on top of the covers gently. Sitting down next to her, he trailed his fingers down her arm gently. His heart ached when he looked at her wounds, but he was so thrilled to have her back with him.

“Have you seen a healer about these at all?” he asked, examining the gashes that curled around onto her torso. He nudged her, and Saragra rolled over, allowing him to examine them more thoroughly.

They were long, and deep, but not deep enough to provide any long term problems. Three gashes made by a dragon’s claw, starting below her right shoulder blade and raking across her ribs, curving down to her hip.

Cullen leaned down and kissed the longest gash where it started, and worked his way down to her hip, trailing kisses light as a whisper.

Saragra sighed and adjusted her posture, pulling a pillow in closer and settling in comfortably..

“They found a healer for us at Suledin Keep. We were all pretty beat up, so the worst of it was taken care of there.”

Cullen paused in his ministrations and murmured against her skin. “The worst of it?”

Saragra nodded, closing her eyes. “We were all pretty beat up. I had a couple of cracked ribs they healed up, Dorian had a broken ankle… Cassandra will never admit it, but I think she hurt her wrist as well. We had them patch us up enough to get us back on the road to Skyhold.”

“Let’s just hope those were the last dragons you’ll have to deal with” Cullen sighed.

“Oh, don’t say that. Bull will be _terribly_ disappointed” Saragra giggled.

Cullen gave her a playful swat “Hush you. Bull will have to find something else to hit for a while. For now, you need to relax. And that is what I’m here to help you do.”

Cullen pushed off of the bed, and pulled off his damp shirt. Tossing it to one side, he straddled Saragra’s back, lowering himself gently.

“Oh? And what do you have in mind, Commander Cullen?” Saragra purred.

“Don’t go getting any ideas now, my girl” Cullen rumbled. He rubbed more of the oil into his hands, and started to rub Saragra’s back gently.

Saragra huffed, but started to relax under Cullen’s hands.

“You guys.. are really spoiling me tonight.”

“You deserve it. I was worried for you, you know.”

Saragra was quiet for a long moment, her eyes closing slowly.

“I know, Cullen. I wish you could come with me more often, but you’re needed here. I worry about you too.” she said quietly.

Cullen kept working out her knotted muscles, moving from her shoulders down her back slowly. Saragra’s breath started to even out as he worked, the weeks of intense fighting and travel catching up with her. She slowly drifted off to sleep, the scent of the oil mingling with Cullen’s cologne in her mind.

Cullen smiled when he realized she was asleep, and carefully got up. He pulled the covers over Saragra, tucking her in snugly.

Saragra made a noise of contentment, and snuggled deeper into the covers. Cullen slipped out of his breeches and slid in next to her. Wrapping one arm around her sleeping form, he dropped a kiss on her shoulder and closed his eyes. He never slept so well as he did when he was next to her, and he fell asleep quickly, curled protectively around Saragra.

  
  



End file.
